In 1904, newly-arrived resident Robert Rodgers asked the Federal Government for a post office to be set up called Canille (he said the spelling was his for "canela"). The post office was authorized as Canille, Arizona Territory on August 22, 1904 and was located in a small building on the Rodgers' property. Robert was the first Postmaster from 1904 to 1906, followed by his wife Anna from 1906 to 1910. In 1910, Addie Parker became Postmaster and moved the office to her home. The Canille post office was discontinued on April 30, 1924 and all mail was re-directed to the post office at Elgin.

Shortly after the Canille post office came into being, the Forest Service established the Canille Ranger Station which for a few years occupied the same small building as the post office on the Rodgers' property; Robert was one of the first Forest Rangers. Later the Ranger Station name was changed to Canelo and the station moved to its current historial location.

In addition to the post office, the new homesteaders and residents needed a school for the growing number of children in the area. Henry Pyeatt suggested using the vacant Evans Camp School building which had been closed when Canille School District #10 was created as Santa Cruz County separated from Pima County; after several years in the Evans Camp building, the school moved to the now historical Canelo One Room School; Fern Bartlett was one of the first teachers.

And they needed a cemetery. In 1909 the City (Court Street) cemetery in Tucson was decomissioned. Mattie Riggs Johnson, whose mother and two other relatives were buried there, was notified to move them. She chose a small mesa near Canelo with black oaks and junipers growing on it as the place to re-bury them; one or two unknown persons were already buried there. In 1917, becoming aware of the need for more space, Mattie petitioned the Forest Service for a 10 acre allotment on that mesa to be set up as a proper cemetery. Robert, who was the Forest Ranger in charge, granted the petition on April 1, 1917 to the Canille School District #10, the only existing entity to receive the grant.

Mattie began fencing the area and her son, James Finley, donated money to permanently endow the cemetery. In 1920, the Black Oak Cemetery Association was organized and Ida Speed Turney was elected President. In 1962, James and his wife Margaret Igo Finley sponsored the construction of the roofed community chapel "in memory of Mattie Riggs Johnson whose relatives were the first to be [layed] to rest in this cemetery". Ida donated the stone and wrought iron entry gate in memory of her husband, Mark and her parents, Ernest and Minnie Morton Speed.

In 1972 the cemetery was incorporated as a 501 (c)(13) and is now governed by a board of directors who take care of the maintenance and assignment of the plots. Burial in the cemetery is open to and free of charge for those who lived in the area prior to December 1952 (considered a pioneer), those who have relatives already buried at Black Oak, or those whose burial is approved upon application to the board of directors. As of fall 2024, there are about 480 burials and memorials in the cemetery.

(information from multiple sources including Betty Barr's transcription of Cora Greenlee Everhart's hand-written journal in the files of the Bowman-Stradling History Center, Sonoita)